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VOLUME XCIV - NUMBER X 1
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Treated For ‘Tick Fever'
Sharon Parton checks her son Danny in
his hospital bed in Chattanooga Friday
afternoon. Danny, who doctors say
contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted
Case Os Rocky Mountain
Spotted Fever Confirmed
By DARRYL YOUNG
Danny Dodd’s mother became alarmed last
Tuesday when the normally active 6-year-old
began to slur his words, made a feeble attempt
to roll down the car window and then slumped
to the seat, falling asleep.
Since Danny had just had his nap, his
mother, Mrs. Sharon Parton feared the worst
and rushed her son to Dr. Gary Smith.
Upon the doctor’s recommendation Mrs.
Parton, who lives with her six children on
Union Street in Summerville, drove her son to
T. C. Thompson Children’s Hospital in Chatta
nooga. On the drive, “Danny was unconscious
the whole time and 1 couldn’t wake him up.”
Mrs. Parton recalled.
Danny was immediately admitted to the
intensive care unit, where doctors started treat
ment for accidental poisoning.
It wasn’t until the next day that Mrs. Parton
discovered a tick behind her son’s ear. “At first
I was going to pull it out, but on second
thought I called for the doctor,” Mrs. Parton
said.
A doctor first tried to free the tick by
placing a hot instrument near it. The tick
stubbornly held fast to Danny’s ear and the
doctor resorted to pulling it out with tweezers,
Mrs. Parton explained.
After finding the tick, the doctors imme
diately started treatment for Rocky Mountain
Spotted Fever, Danny’s mother said. The disease
is transmitted by the American Dog Tick and is
hard to diagnosis, but once the tick’s presence
was known, the doctors’ suspicions were
aroused.
When Danny started to vomit, the doctors
np 1 Al/* TT HUD Says Bureaucratic Changes Led
x Cliff Uj J- CjIUCS • rpo Contradiction Involving Grants
By DARRYL YOUNG
AND TOM KIRWAN
When Chattooga County
and the City of Summerville
jointly submitted a preappli
cation for a half-million-dollar
Department of Housing and
Development grant earlier this
year, there was reason for opti
mism.
That optimism stemmed
from the fact that the City of
LaFayette, only a year earlier,
had been given a similar federal
grant in the annual HUD grant
competition.
ANALYSIS
To local observers, it
seemed only logical that the
local grant request would be
honored in light of develop
ments in LaFayette.
For example:
♦ LaFayette’s grant was to
be used for industrial park
development, exactly the same
use local officials sought to
obtain a grant for.
• LaFayette’s grant totaled
$500,000, as did the Chat
tooga-Summerville grant
request.
• Both communities have
been suffering from the pangs
of chronic unemployment,
which presumably the HUD
grants would help improve.
♦ LaFayette has a total of
269 housing units for lowland
moderate-income families.
Summerville has 225 public
assistance housing units and
has received conditional
approval on a 60-unit high rise
complex for the elderly. In
addition, Menlo has another 66
units. HUD officials say great
importance is placed on com
munity effort in low- and
moderate-income housing.
Despite these and an assort
ment of other similarities, how-
Stye Sumnurutlle News
Fever, was doing much better after
treatment, by Tuesday he was up and
about, ready to return to his Summer
ville home.
thought Danny might be suffering from viral
encephalitis but kept treating him for Rocky
Mountain Spotted Fever. Mrs. Parton said.
Danny started to respond to treatment Monday
and the doctors’ suspicions that he was suf
fering from the often-fatal Rocky Mountain
Spotted Fever were confirmed. His condition
improved on Tuesday and by yesterday
Danny’s recovery had progressed so well that
the doctors removed his intravenous tube. He
even started to walk around his room. “He’s so
much better, it’s a real relief,” Mrs. Parton
remakred. I’m so tired from this ordeal; it will
be good to be home again.”
Mrs. Parton has stayed by Danny’s side the
whole time her son has been in the hospital.
She explained that it was the policy of the
hospital that a parent or other adult remain
with an ill child at all times.
The tick that made Danny sick wasn’t the
first tick that Mrs. Parton has found on her
children this year. “I found one in my 9-year
old’s hair the other day after he and Danny had
been playing outside,” she said.
Danny’s illness is the first confirmed case of
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Chattooga
County in several years, a local physician said.
The tick population is noticeably bigger this
year, he said, and the importance of checking
for ticks is as a result that much more impor
tant.
A nurse at T. C. Thompson Children’s
Hospital said that so far this year “about three
cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever have
been treated here.” In the state of Georgia 37
cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever were
see FEVER, page 5-A
ever, the Chattooga-Summer
ville grant request was turned
down flat. The optimism that
local officials had held turned
sour when a few weeks ago it
was announced that the local
grant request had rated a
dismal 93rd out of the 96 pre
applications submitted state
wide.
Although HUD gives grants
to communities in three cate
gories-housing, economic
development, and public
facilities—all but one of the
approved grants was for
housing. Not a single economic
development preapplication
was approved, and only one
public facilities’ grant was
given among the 15 successful
communities to receive grants
statewide.
With that list’s release,
LaFayette became the one and
only community to receive an
economic development grant in
the two-year period.
Ironically, a review of perti
nent documents undertaken by
The News shows, the local
effort to secure a grant far and
away exceeded that of LaFay
ette’s. For example:
* The LaFayette request
was skimpy when compared to
the preapplication submitted
for the Chattooga-Summerville
request. By sheer weight, the
LaFayette request was 3
ounces; the local request
weighed 1 pound.
* While the local request
was loaded with statistics
aimed at showing the need for
economic development here,
LaFayette’s was scant by
comparison.
* The number of citizens
turning out to support the
local grant at the Chattooga
County Courthouse was nearly
double the number that turned
out for public hearings in
LaFayette.
HUD officials contacted by
The News have denied rumors
that LaFayette’s success was
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA 30747, THURSDAY, MAY 24. 1979
spurred by political influence,
or that the Chattooga-Summer
ville preapplication failed so
miserably due to an alleged
lack of political string-pulling.
Instead, a change in bureau
cratic guidelines used to judge
preapplications is pinpointed
by HUD officials as the reason
for LaFayette doing so well
and Chattooga-Summerville
doing so poorly under the
grant program.
Sam Agee, a program
manager for HUD, explained
that preapplications last year
were compared against those
submitted by other com
munities seeking funding in the
same category and were rated
on a curve basis.
This year, Agee said, all
grants were compared with one
another regardless of category.
The other grant proposals were
simply better than Summer
ville’s under the new system,
he said.
Agee offered a comparison
to illustrate the scoring pro
cedure changes: “Last year it
was like grading apples, oranges
and pears, and looking for the
best of each group. This year,
we just graded fruit.”
HUD has gone to a point
system of grading preappli
cations, Agee said, and “no one
person graded one preappli
cation.” The point system
doesn’t allow for Congressional
influence or pushing for a pet
project, he said. “It’s the
fairest way,” he commented.
Agee admitted that “a long
time ago” Congressional influ
ence did play a big part in
determining which projects
HUD funded.
Another reason Chattooga
County and Summerville did
not get HUD funding for an
industrial park, Agee said, is
that HUD “is in the housing
business; if you don’t do any
thing about housing, you don’t
get funded.” A community can
have the best preapplication
Snag Involving Town Branch
Project Said To Be Resolved
By TOM KIRWAN
A major obstacle that
threatened to jeopardize the
City of Summerville’s proposed
Town Branch flood project has
apparently been overcome, The
Summerville News has learned.
The situation developed
several weeks ago when the
U. S. Army Corps of Engineers,
requested several years ago by
the city to develop a plan to
solve the flooding problem,
issued maps showing that its
plan would require easements
of 75 feet on each side of the
creek adjacent to property
currently-owned by local busi
nessman, Stanley Selman.
In early April, at a public
workshop on the proposed
project, Selman told the city
council and Corps repre
sentatives that the Corps’ pro
posed 150 feet easement
requirement along the creek
jeopardized his planned sale of
commercial property along the
branch. The prospective buyer,
an out-of-state company* felt
that the proposed easements
would infringe upon parking
space necessary for the
development of its proposed
shopping center, Selman said,
and unless the easements could
be reduced the buyer might
back out of the deal. Selman
indicated that if a compromise
could be worked out con-
County Water Project
Contracts Awarded
Representatives of Chat
tooga County Water District
No. 1 opened bids Friday and
announced the low bidders for
three construction contracts
for the expansion of the Cloud
land water system and the
county water system in the
north end of the county.
The bids on the three con
tracts came to a total of
$503,868, of which $192,000
will be financed by grants from
the State of Georgia’s emer
gency fund and the Farmers
Home Administration
(FmHA), Commissioner Pete
Denson noted. The rest of the
water project will be financed
by a low interest loan through
the FmHA.
The low bid for the water
distribution systems was made
but not get funded, Agee said,
if its- housing program isn’t up
to snuff.
“We are looking for pro
grams that will meet the needs
of the community,” Agee said.
“If a community asks for
funding for a recreation center
and a park, but their housing is
substandard, what good is it
going to do the people who live
in the substandard housing?
“On the other hand,” he
continued, “if a community
has met the low- and moderate
income housing needs and they
request funding for a park and
recreation center, we would
consider it as enhancing the
quality of life and would be in
the best interest of the com
munity,” Agee explained.
An industrial park would be
considered in the same light,
Agee said. If adequate housing
is not available in a com
munity, the standard of living
will not be raised by simply
bringing jobs into the com
munity. People will commute
from other counties and areas
and substandard housing will
still be a problem, the HUD
spokesman said. Another
reason, no economic develop
ment grants were given this
year, he said, is because
industries and supportive busi
ness look at the housing avail
able to employees. “If the
housing is substandard, the
companies will figure that the
employees from these areas
would be substandard,” he
said.
Before a grant application
can be successful in obtaining
federal funds from HUD, Agee
said, the community must take
an inventory of the com
munity’s needs. Often it is not
the community leaders who see
the needs of an area, but the
garbage man, mailman, teacher
or preacher.
Agee explained that HUD is
staffed with people who travel
to communities and help evalu-
cerning the necessary ease
ments required along his
branch property that possible
expensive condemnation
procedures by the city could
be avoided. He emphasized
that he was eager to work with
the city to resolve the situation
to everyone’s satisfaction.
Last week, Selman told The
News that the matter
apparently has been cleared up.
The prospective buyer, he said,
has “said things have been
worked out with the Corps and
that they will go ahead and
buy it.”
Selman said that he hadn’t
learned the exact details of the
compromise involving the ease
ments along his property, that
he only knew that the buyer
and Corps had “been able to
work something out.”
Selman said he hopes to
close out the deal within 60
days, “possibly sooner.”
He declined to name the
firm that is buying the
property, but said the compa
ny was based in Pennsylvania
and that it “has been in busi
ness 52 years.”
He said the company “will
probably be spending between
$2.5 anu $3 million” to
develop the Lyerly Highway'
property as the site of a new
shopping center. “They already
have (commercial) tenets lined
>■. Frontier Construction'
Co., Inc. of Tennessee for
$240,305. The firm was also
the low bidder on the construc
tion of three new well houses
and pump station with a bid of
$193,100.
The lowest bid for the
150,000-gallon water storage
tank to be erected in Clbud
land was the RF.CO Construc
tors Inc., of Richmond, Va.,
with a bid of $70,463, officials
said.
A Total of three new wells
is to be completed under this
project. Two of the wells are
near the Water District No. 1
office on Old U. S. Highway
27. These two wells were
tested and approved as fit for
public use by the Georgia De
partment of Natural Resources
ate an area’s needs. He added
that “if they want to come and
ask about what they can do it’s
all right, but I can’t come to a
community and say this pro
gram worked in Texas, why
don’t you try it here?”
Bill Powers, a community
planning and development
representative with HUD, said
one reason the Chattooga-
Summerville preapplication did
so poorly in the scoring was
because there was no firm com
mitment by any industry to
come to the area. “Would you
give a half of a million dollars
away without any firm com
mitment that it would be
used?” Powers questioned.
“We had no way of telling if
it (an industrial park) would
benefit the low-income people
in the area. Powers said.”
“With no firm commitment by
any industry there was noway
to say that ‘x’ number of
people will be employed.”
When asked by a reporter
why there would be such a
discrepancy between LaFay
ette’s scoring and that of Chat
tooga and Summerville, Powers
answered, “Maybe we slipped
up, I couldn’t say for sure.’ He
then explained that federal
guidelines were hazy last year
when they granted LaFayette
its half-million-dollar grant.
Those problems were
straightened out this year, he
said.
With Chattooga County and
Summerville’s hopes to secure
HUD financing looking
gloomy, other avenues must be
explored to find financing for
an industrial park, officials say.
Henry Watson, Chattooga
County Chamber of Commerce
president, said a sale of bonds,
or a low-interest loan from the
Farmers Home Administration,
might be possible sources of
financing the large project. “By
no means has the Chamber of
Commerce given up on an
industrial park,” Watson said.
up,” Selman said, indicating
that a supermarket and a
department store will probably
be included in the facility.
“I’m anxious to see the site
cleaned up and see it go up,”
Selman said of the proposed
shopping center. A preliminary
plan he has seen, Selman indi
cated, showed that the
shopping center could have up
to 140,000 square feet of avail
able space eventually, but that
initially the footage will
probably be between 90,000
and 105,000 square feet on the
14.3 acre site. Selman said
some local residents were un
happy that he is playing a role
in bringing another shopping
center here, apparently fearing
that downtown businesses will
suffer. But he said he doesn’t
feel that will happen and that
the new shopping center will
encourage local residents to
shop more within the county
rather than going to Rome or
Chattanooga to shop.
Summerville Mayor Sewell
Cash told The News that the
reported resolution of the ease
ment problem along the Lyerly
Highway property brings the
City “another step closer” to
going ahead with the project.
The proposed shopping
center, he said, would generate
new property taxes for the
city, which could help pay for
in April of this year They will
supplement the county water
supply in the north end of
Chattooga County, Eddie
Schrock, an engineer with
Williams, Sweitzer and Barnum
Inc. said. Schrock’s firm was
hired by the county to
coordinate the project.
The bids include the cost of
construction of two pump
houses, the addition of a diesel
generator for an existing pump
house and the connection of
the two new wells to the pre
sent water system in the north
end of the county, Schrock
explained. The existing system
will also be looped so as to
make it a closed system.
Schrock added that the two
wells being developed in the
north end of the county are
expected to produce 200
gallons of water per minute.
The Cloudland water
project will eat up approxi
mately 40 percent of the half
million dollars allotted for the
water improvements in the
county, Schrock roughly esti
mated. He emphasized that his
estimate was just a ballpark
figure, however.
Schrock said that he and
Robert L. Moss, the project
engineer for the Chattooga
County water projects, will
recommend to the contractor
that they start on the Cloud
land water project first because
of the severe water shortage
the community has exper
ienced the last two summers.
The contracts should be
signed and the easements affir
med within the next 60 to 90
days, Schrock said, and work
should begin shortly thereafter.
The water projects are
scheduled to be completed by
November, Moss said.
The pump house for the
Cloudland project will be
located on Leroy Massey’s land
in Shinbone Valley west of
Menlo. The line will run up and
mountain; the water will be
contained in the present
storage tanks and a new
150,000-gallon tank that will
be constructed at the same
time as the water project.
Presently the Cloudland
water is not metered, and the
addition of meters is also
planned. Cloud land residents
will pay a rate of 65 cents per
thousand cubic feet instead of
the flat rate of $lO a month
they presently pay, Lucien
Desilets, president of the
Cloudland Water Department,
said.
Closings Set
Several city and county
offices will be closed Monday
in observance of the Memorial
Day holiday.
Summerville City Hall and
the Chattooga County Court
house offices will be closed
Monday. The Courthouse will
also be closed Saturday for the
holiday.
the proposed branch project.
When that decision
whether the City will go ahead
with the project-will be made
appears uncertain. But Mayor
** I fl
B Bi J i
w A I
.. ii
Miss Chattooga County
Mignon Rounsaville, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. A.
Rounsaville of 220 Hawkins Drive in Summerville,
won the title of Miss Chattooga County Friday night.
Mignon is a senior at Chattooga High School. (Story,
more pictures inside.)
Road To Cloudland
Eyed For Widening
Motorists who regularly
travel State Highway 48 over
Lookout Mountain know how
slow the traffic flow can be,
especially when a heavily-laden
truck is struggling to make the
grade just before Cloudland.
The Georgia Department of
Transportation has recognized
the problem and is planning to
add a passing lane and left turn
lane to help alleviate the
problem, David Kelly, a
spokesman for the DOT said.
The project is scheduled to
begin next spring and should
be completed within a year or
less, Kelly said. The passing
lane will be for the uphill
traffic and will begin about a
mile from the top of the grade.
The left turn lane will be for
uphill traffic turning at the top
of the hill into the community
of Cloudland.
The DOT is planning to
widen the road by adding fill
Auction Nets
•2,711 Here
For System
The Chattooga County
Board of Education raised over
$2,700 at an auction held
Saturday morning to sell
surplus school vehicles, ranges
and scrap metal.
Superintendent Bill King
said the auction, which began
at 10 a.m. at the bus barn, was
a success. Within an hour’s
time all items had been sold,
King said, and an estimated
$2,711 netted. Board chairman
Joel Cook served as auctioneer.
The items sold and the
amounts they brought were: a
1957 Chevrolet pickup truck
for $175; a 1957 Chevrolet
pickup truck, $168; a 1969
Plymouth Sedan, $100; a 1952
International pickup truck,
$170; a 1955 1%-ton Ford
truck, $310; a 1967 Inter
nationa) bus, $585; a 1968
Chevrolet bus, $855; four
electric ranges from the Chat
tooga High School home eco
nomics department, averaging
$65 each; and miscellaneous
scrap metal for SBB.
“We had a good turnout for
the auction,” said Super
intendent King. “There was a
lot of interest and the bids
were. spirited at times. We feel
like we had a pretty nice sale.”
PRICE 15c
Cash said the solving of the
problems surrounding the
Selman property “does make
the decision easier to make”
for the city council.
to the slope side and excava
ting into the mountain. Kelly
said that during the construc
tion of the passing lane the
traffic flow should be mini
mumly interrupted.
Kelly estimated the cost for
the project to run in the neigh
borhood of $700,000 but
added that figure could change
once the project gets under
way.
End Os Term
For Schools
Approaching
Local schools will soon be
closing their doors for the
annual summer holidays.
The Chattooga County
school system’s last day is June
5, with CHS graduation exer
cises that evening in the gym,
according to the superinten
dent’s office.
Summerville Junior High
School’s graduation exercises
have been rescheduled for June
5 at 9:30 a.m. Originally, a
spokesman said, the graduation
had been planned for the day
before in order to coincide
with the schedule of Georgia
Secretary of State Ben Fort
son, who died last week.
Classes will not resume for
Chattooga County students
until Aug. 23.
The last day of school for
the Trion system will be May
31, said the Trion Superinten
dent’s office. Graduation
exercises will be held June 4 in
the Community Center.
School bells will ring again
for Trion students on Aug. 20.
Follies Returning
A rerun of this year’s Chat
tooga County Follies will be
performed Friday night, June
1, in the Summerville Junior
High School Auditorium,
beginning at 8 p.m.
Rehearsal will be held
Monday in the junior high
auditorium beginning at 7 p.m.
At-the-door admission will
be $3 for adults and $2 for
students.
The rerun is being per
formed for the benefit of
youth choir touring fund of
the First Baptist Church of
Summerville.